Three prereading children who named 0 to 3 of 20 targeted letters were taught to select the 20 printed letters when they heard spoken letter names. For all participants, letter-identification training resulted in naming for the majority of letters.

Intended for use with youngsters eager to begin reading as well as reluctant starters, this book is filled with time-tested, entertaining, and simple games that build on children's curiosity and sense of fun to teach reading skills. The book contains a brief introduction outlining the methods and goals of the reading games and instructions on how…

Discusses functional literacy activities (reading and writing activities used to achieve some real-life goal) and their usefulness in providing motivation as well as practice opportunities for young children. Notes four such activities: name cards, signs and labels, daily schedule, and references. (SR)

Nineteen kindergarten children were pretested on readiness and blending tests and randomly assigned to a control or experimental group to determine if auditory blending skills were teachable and important in a beginning reading program. Following instruction in sequencing and blending sounds, the experimental group gained significantly in both…

The process of creating handmade books with children is a great way to experience communication through art and words. One of the important literacy skills children need to learn is "concepts of print." These include the basic understanding of what a book is, the ability to recognize the front and back covers, and the capacity to turn the pages…

After considering the advent of knowledge about prereading from a longitudinal perspective, this report then reviews the research on preschool children's attempts to read and offers a discussion of cross-sectional research on both prereading and beginning reading. The discussion is organized in terms of three hypothesized strands of prereading:…

Guidelines for parents involved in teaching their children to read are provided in this Australian early childhood resource booklet. Suggestions are offered for introducing words to children, talking to children, and reading to children. Material focused on the topic of learning to read at home is divided into two sections: (1) reading games, and…

Four computer-animated tasks were created to analyze the underlying structure of emerging phonological awareness at 3.5 years of age and to explore factors that influence children's (n=91) performance. The children were able to master tasks demanding identification, blending, and continuation of phonological units. Analysis supported two major…

As part of a series of publications reporting the promising practices gleaned from pre-elementary Right to Read programs, this manual is designed to provide pertinent information regarding young children and reading. It covers such topics as the skills necessary for reading acquisition, how children acquire these skills, and the importance of…

As part of a series of publications reporting the promising practices gleaned from pre-elementary Right to Read Read programs, this manual is designed as an easy reference source through which parents can help their young children develop the skills necessary to read. While the manual is designed for use by parents, the activities discussed can…

Presents suggestions for early-childhood professionals to encourage reading aloud to children at home, including allowing parents opportunities to watch caregivers read with their children. Includes a list of benefits of reading aloud, a bibliography of read-aloud books, and sample book-reading project questionnaire. (LBT)

Investigates the effect of corrective feedback on the capacity of preliterate children to learn explicit phonetic segmentation. (HOD)

This micromonograph, concerned with beginning reading readiness, is one of a series designed to answer for parents questions about their children's reading development. The development of the concept of reading readiness is briefly discussed, and four major factors involved in reading readiness are identified: mental factors, physical factors,…

This report explains why reading story books to young children (an activity assumed to help in the acquisition of literacy, although there is no unambiguous evidence in support of this assumption) is likely to be important and reviews the evidence about the role it might play in literacy development. The first section of the report examines…

The development of children's metalinguistic understanding of the basic unit of reading--the word--was examined. Subjects were 45 children from preschool, kindergarten, and first grade who were reclassified according to reading ability (nonreadiness, readiness, reader). The children's understanding of the word as a linguistic segment was measured…